Viking Outs Non-Volatile DIMMs

Equipped with onboard NAND flash, the ArxCis-NV DIMM can be plugged into standard DIMM memory slots available on all server systems. The memory module can also be used in RAID controller cards. Viking has started shipping the non-volatile dual in-line memory module with 4GB of DDR3 memory and 8GB of NAND flash to a select few server manufacturers. DIMMs with high capacity are slated for late 2013 and early 2014.

Another feature of the ArxCis is that it can be used instead of battery backed-up (BBU) memory modules in servers and raid controllers. Having an onboard NAND storage allows the ArxCis to perform exceptionally well in setups which require high-speed in-memory transactions such as those used in search engines as well as “hyper-scale” computing applications. Google’s type-ahead feature is one such example where massive indices are stored in memory for real-time response to user queries.

Viking has claimed that the new ArxCis can be used in conjunction with Solid State Drives to enhance the life and performance of the latter. The reason for this, according to Viking executives, is that as DDR memory is faster as compared to NAND memory, with more data stored in RAM, there would be lesser writes on the SSD. Further, as data is only written to the NAND on the DIMM when there is a drop in voltage, the memory module can be used for as long as 10 years before the NAND starts giving away.

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